Football: Cal confirms Michalczik is out

After 24 hours of conflicting reports, Cal confirmed Wednesday morning that offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Jim Michalczik has been let go. That means none of the five holdover assistant coaches remains with the program.

We first reported on Tuesday that wide receivers coach Wes Chandler said all five assistants were out. Cal then said Michalczik still was part of the staff, creating confusion and prompting a series of back-and-forth internet reports.

Turns out our initial report was correct and that for technical reasons Michalczik’s termination was not finalized at the same time as the others.

New coach Sonny Dykes announced on Tuesday the hiring of two of his former Louisiana Tech aides — offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and assistant head coach/wide receivers Rob Likens.

I’ll put it on the back burner, but let’s hope this is not an omen of unprofessionality. Meets with Chandler in the morning then has someone else fire him by phone hours later. Then this press “issue” allowing miscommunications with the fans regarding the staff. How tough would it have been to clear that up initially? Couldn’t the guy that Dykes had fire Chandler had called the press, too?

Jumping to conclusions is silly. Cal has strange rules regarding hiring and announcing things.
Once the staff has been finalized I do hope Sandy or SD will briefly summarize the process and give us closure.
A lot of people have a lot of love, respect and appreciation for the former coaches.
But, a new is era is here and that’s a good thing!
All Cal’s employees need to be on same page to move forward together!

Solly Fulp informed the informed coaches they would not be retained. Dykes reports to Solly, as did the interim coaches. Seems like the appropriate person to deliver the news. As for press releases, definitely could have been handled better, in this age where Twitter rumors run amok.

A few fans have been critical of hiring Dykes from the start continue to be critical (Silver, et al), despite claiming to keep an open mind. Hopefully they aren’t actively seeking reasons to get upset.

Yeah, some people may actively seek reasons to be upset. Of course, others may actively propose a counter argument when faced with the mere possibility of anything even remotely negative about any aspect of anything Cal.

I think anyone on here being positive or negative about what has transpired with Dykes is fine (and speculation, as you like to say). Silver though…not sure what his motive is. Nothing he can say will change what’s happened, his “guy” Hue didn’t get hired, and his carping about it or other things that are going on only serves to indicate how petty he is. He should adopt the same “wait and see” attitude as most fans. His motivation is way different than Wilner’s motivation, which is to say he’s an alum and I’m unsure what’s driving him to complain, while a guy like Wilner is just fighting to stay relevant (and keep his job), so he has to blast away.

Dykes is guaranteed to put butts in the seats next season and beyond unless he utterly flops, and there is only evidence to the contrary in that regard. No other hire, save maybe Jon Gruden, woulda been able to generate as much excitement as Dykes will between now and next season. People will want to see what the fuss is all about: 51.5 pts/game is A LOT, I don’t care what league you are in.

I am very excited that the Cal program has been put into the hands of a group of men from the South, for a change. Their region of the country is RABID for football and COMPETITIVE AS HELL. I cannot wait for that first go-for-it attempt on 4th and 3 from the opponent’s 41 yard line. That is what these guys will bring – REAL football! We will no longer be subjected to Tedford’s PC brand of limp-wristed “kick first” football. Viva Texas! Go Bears!

>>>In his first season directing Tech’s tailbacks, Ingram guided Lennon Creer’s 1,181 yard campaign during the 2010 season that included a 252-yard performance against San Jose State – the seventh most in a single game in Tech history. Creer also posted a 149-yard rushing day at No. 2 Boise State, more yards than 12 of Boise’s 13 opponents recorded against the Broncos as a team during 2010.

Ingram joined the Bulldogs after winning a national championship at Villanova, where he coached the tight ends as an offensive assistant. In addition to working with the tight ends, Ingram was responsible for recruiting in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

“Pierre [Ingram] comes from a winning program and he will bring tremendous energy to our program,” said Dykes. “He loves the game and I’m looking forward to him bringing his energy and passion to the program. He will also be a great recruiting asset for us.”>>>

I especially like the last sentences of 2nd and 3rd para. He’s also under 30.

On jt’s staff wasn’t arroyo the only coach under thirty? Ambrose the only one under forty?

It’s me, the broken record again, branding all you Dykes lovers as delusional. You’re so smitten by his sexy scoring stats that you can’t see that he doesn’t give a damn about defense. All offense and no defense is an idiotic approach to coaching. It works in the backwoods leagues, but not in the big leagues.

Bears need DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE…..
Without it we’re doomed to the bottom of the Pac-12 once again.

Believe it or not, a couple of the Holmoe teams played pretty good defense under a trio of NFL players named Clements, Hardy and O’Neal. Trouble is, they couldn’t play a lick of offense. One of the Big Games was. 7-3 score, I believe. I don’t ever want to see that at Cal again…..EVER! I respect good defense, but I am a fan of the game when the ball is flying through the air and fast receivers are making circus catches all over the field. Let the Dykes era begin!

Again, we’ve got some solid defensive players, and they have done well wheen the offense at least put up a sputter. But when the offense is horrific, the defense is impacted. They need to feed off each other and both be strong. We can’t judge Sonny’s D (see what I did there) in the past because we don’t know what calibar of player he had. But I can presume that with a Good DC, and with our players, and with an offense that moves the ball to give the D a rest and inspire them, we should be fine. The opposite of innovate is stagnate. We are headed in the better direction now.

2011 he had the top defense in the WAC. In 2012 he had the worst. If you listen to the press conference, you know he knows the defense has to get better. When you score a million points, you’re going to give up a lot, too. The defense will have to be it tip tip condition. We have better athletes than LA Tech. We have better defensive athletes than offensive athletes, as a whole (strength and stamina, at least). If we get a top D-coordinator (who will have to run the D on his own, essentially) we’ll be fine. We may not shut teams out like oregon, but I think we’re going to have a few games where we score over 50, and hold the opponents under 30. That would be a huge improvement over the last 5+ years. Plus, offense is way more exciting, and outside of the SEC, it puts the most butts in the seats. I’m all in with Dykes, and just excited to see how it plays out this year (the most challenging schedule we’ve had in many many years) as long as we get a good D coordinator.

Heh… Anyone thinking that Dykes “doesn’t give a damn about defense” is delusional at best, buying into a false dilemma cliche used against any coach or team known primarily for its offense. It’s not like SD hasn’t mentioned the importance of hiring a top D coordinator at every opportunity. As others have pointed out, it’s not like his teams haven’t had respectable defenses.

Nothing puts more pressure on your defense than an offense which can’t score or move the ball.

Rollon, the LT 2011 defense was only tops in turnovers, and by a ridiculous amount, having 21 picks. Just guessing, but I’d say it was a gambling D that won in a league of not so top notch QBs. In 2012 (when all of the NCAA doubled in penalties – not sure why), their TOs went back to the average for the league and the other stats ballooned.

It is a moot point until a DC is hired, and hopefully that man is given his own rule for that side of the ball. I don’t by the “what athletes did he have” argument, because the other WAC offenses are also using that tier of athletes (and again, consider the D went against QBs from Idaho, NMS, Texas St, etc).

The point of my original disappointment is that he doesn’t SEEM to have (or even want?) any involvement on that side of the ball. And sure, this can be corrected with the right DC hire, but you also have to hope for a Franklin type that will want to remain, even though he’ll do all the D work and success would probably mean schools would want to promote him.

Offensive and defensive mindedness are not mutually exclusive. You don’t have to be giving up on one to enjoy the other. In fact, the best coaches, IMO, do both.

The last few years have been tough on the eyes, often, but one of my favorite games was the rain soaked, 15-13 loss to Oregon in 2010 (even though the fake injuries did blemish it a bit).

I totally agree with Rollonubears comments, and it was interesting to learn about La Tech’s 2011 top defensive performance. Makes me feel a lot better.

Regarding the handling of Coach M’s dismissal, I think it shows the lack of cohesion in the athletic department. They probably have way too many assistant AD types who get in each other’s way. I’m not a Jerry Brown fan, but I agree, in this case, “less is more.”

yep, wisdom, point well taken. with rush d near the top and pass d in the middle, it’s pretty clear they were blitzing a ton, forcing tfls and picks, but also giving up some huge offensive passing plays. still, when you factor in how pathetic our offense has been, and how boring our bend-dont-break defense has been, i’m excited to take some chances on D. i really think this team’s going to fun to watch. and if one of you favorite cal games was a loss, wouldn’t you be at least as excited about a high-scoring loss as you were a low scoring one? i sure will be.

God on high…..
Hear my prayer…
For CAL fans…
Sometimes you are not fair…..
He is young……
His shirt stayed red….
He is our hope…
In Zack Kline amen…..
Let him score….let him score…let him score….
He’s like the QBs of the past, AR and Boller were the type,
But since then we’ve had no luck, airplane throwing with no hype.
The seasons pass, one by one, we punt on fourth and we give to the NFL, but with nothing to show….
We will stand….
Under mistletoe…
We will gasp…
At ZK’s cannon-like throw..
The time is now….
The stage is set….
We want our rose…
Sonny’s our bet….
Let Zack score… let him score….let him score…
If he gets hit…………..let him get hit……..
But let him score….give us a rose….let him score…..let him score!

Sonny’s no dummy. In the radio interview, he talked about defense. Could it be justlip service? If Cal turns out to have one of those lickety-split offenses that zips through its possessions, that will leave more field time for the defense. That’s where we’re headed, so the D has to be good. Have doubts that Sonny is sincere about attention to D. Know we’ll have better athletes than WAC but hate that WAC mentality.

Damn that everything-is-offense crap! What about a coach with an SEC approach? Where’s our Nick Saban?

Man I wish we had some real news to discuss. Most winters, I’m still just disgusted with the team and take the time off and wait til Spring to get fired up. But now I am amped for next season already and am gonna go crazy all winter/summer. Am hoping we get some real recruiting pop in the next couple weeks. We’ve learned in sports, and in last season’s recruiting, its not how you start, its how you finish. Sonny, go out and promise the moon! Be innovative with recruiting too. Top education and proven NFL pipeline. Let’s steal some recruits!

Happy to hear that Sonny Boy is clearing the slate clean. Rip off the band aid in one motion. On with the new and out with the old. A new beginning. I’m not getting any younger and I want to go to a whole bunch of Rose Bowls and BCS Bowls. Slowly but surely Sonny Boy. We are with you until you show us otherwise.

I agree Rob Bear. At age 55, I don’t have a lot of seasons left to screw around with. I live in Pasadena and along with World Peace, one of my goals is to be sitting in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day watching my beloved Golden Bears winning it all. Should have had it in January of 2005 but we all know how that went.

Easy Ed, I am originally from Eagle Rock and we had all of our high school homecoming games at RoseBowl and I spent about every New Years Eve from age 13 to 18 passed out on Rose Parade route, so I feel your pain. I want to relive that again but with CAL there (and maybe not passing out). I plan to rent an RV and camp out on golf course at Dawn next year at the UCLA game with tons of food/drinks/games so I hope you and our other blog brothers will come by. We’ll coordinate next year. Also plan to be up at CAL at least for TOSU and if possible for NWTN.

But one of the things I looked forward to most with Tedford’s firing was an end to the get-to-the-line-of-scrimmage-then-stop-and-look-at-the-coaches crap. I really hate it. Sounds like Auburn fans hated it, too, naming it “The Meerkat.”